Chapter 19 Vocab

Fusion

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McKinley Act

1890 bill calling for the highest peacetime tariff yet: 48.4 percent. It gave a bounty of two cents a pound to American sugar producers, and raised tariffs on agricultural products. The duties on manufactured goods hurt farmers financially.

Coxey's Army

1893 - Group of unemployed workers led by Jacob Coxey who marched from Ohio to Washington to draw attention to the plight of workers and to ask for government relief. Government arrested the leaders and broke up the march in Washington.

James G. Blaine

A U.S. Representative, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, U.S. Senator from Maine, two-time Secretary of State. He was nominated for president in 1884, but lost a close race to Democrat Grover Cleveland.

"Dark Horse"

A candidate nominated when a dead lock rises between two leading candidates.

Ignatius Donnelly

A noted United States writer and a champion of the Populist Party, Donnelly served as an U.S. Congressman from Minnesota from 1863 to 1869. He also wrote Great Cryptogram in an attempt to prove that Francis Bacon wrote William Shakespeare's works.

Gold Standard Act 1900

Act demanded by hard-moneyites that was finally passed in 1900 providing that paper currency was to be redeemed freely for gold.

Sherman Silver Purchase Act

Act that was a compromise between the western silver agitators and the eastern protectionists. The Westerners agreed to support a higher tariff and the protectionists, this bill. It ordered the Treasury to buy 4.5 million ounces of silver monthly.

Oliver H. Kelley

Agriculture Department official who found the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry.

William Jennings Bryan

An American lawyer, statesman, and politician. He was a three-time Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States. Greatly supported and led the progressive movement and helped to enact the 18th amendment (prohibition).

Chester A. Arthur

Became the 21st president when James Garfield was assassinated. He was a Conkling henchman. Arthur supported civil service reform.

Mary E. Lease

Became well-known during the early 1890s for her actions as a speaker for the Populist party. She was a tall, strong woman who made numerous and memorable speeches on behalf of the downtrodden farmer. She denounced the money-grubbing government and encouraged farmers to speak their discontent with the economic situation.

"Cross of Gold Speech"

Delivered by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago on July 8, 1896. The speech advocated bimetallism.

Populism

Farm-based movement of the late 1800s that arose mainly in the area from Texas to the Dakotas and grew into a joint effort between farmer and labor groups against big business and machine-based politics. The movement became a third party in the election of 1892. Farmers wanted silver dollars (inflation), government ownership of railroads, and lower protective tariffs.

Pendleton Act

Federal legislation which created a system in which federal employees were chosen on the basis of competitive examinations, therefore making merit, or ability, the reason for hiring people to fill federal positions.

James B. Weaver

He held several offices in Iowa before he adopted the cause of reform and was elected (1878) to the U.S. House of Representatives on the Greenback party ticket. In 1880 he was the unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Greenback party. Weaver continued to advocate "soft-money" views. He helped form the Farmers' Alliance—an agrarian reform movement—and when that organization became the Populist Party, Weaver ran (1892) as its presidential candidate. Although defeated, he polled more than one million popular and 22 electoral votes.

James A. Garfield

He was assassinated four months after his inauguration. He was a Civil War veteran, a congressmen and a republican and was inclined toward low tariffs. Claimed he was neither a Stalwart nor a Half-Breed. He backed an investigation on a post office scandal and made a Half-Breed collector at a port in New York. A stalwart lawyer shot him.

The Grange

It was a farmers's movement involving the affiliation of local farmers into area "granges" to work for their political and economic advantages. The official name of the National Grange is the Patrons of Husbandry the Granger movement was successful in regulating the railroads and grain warehouses

Marcus Hannah

Ohio businessman and Hamiltonian who aided McKinley personally and politically. He believed in "trickle down" economics. His campaign helped nominate McKinley. He led the "Gold Bug" movement against Bryan.

Mugwamps

Republican political activists who bolted from the United States Republican Party by supporting Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland in the United States presidential election of 1884. They switched parties because they rejected the financial corruption associated with Republican candidate James G. Blaine.

Interstate Commerce Act

Signed into law by President Grover Cleveland. Its original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers.

"Free Silver"

The "free and unlimited coinage of silver."

Grangers Law

The Granger laws were a series of laws passed in western states of the United States after the American Civil War to regulate grain elevator and railroad freight rates and rebates and to address long- and short-haul discrimination and other railroad abuses against farmers.

Sherman Antitrust Act

The act forbade unreasonable combinations or contracts in restraint of trade. It had little impact on the regulation of large corporations. During the last decade of the nineteenth century, the primary use of the act was to curb labor unions.

Half-breeds and Stalwarts

The two groups that were factions of the Republican Party. Half-breeds favored reform and were led by James G. Blaine. The Stalwarts favored traditional machine politics.

Farmers' Alliances

This organization replaced the National Grange as a support group for the nation's farmers during the 1880s. This kind of organization was politically active in the Midwest and South and was central to the founding of the Populist Party.

Bi-metalism

Using silver and gold as a basis for the dollar to expand money supply.

"Rum, Romanism, Rebellion"

What Dr. Samuel Burchard referred to the Democratic party as.

Crime of '73

When Congress stopped the coinage of the silver dollar against the will of the farmers and westerners who wanted unlimited coinage of silver. With no silver coming into the federal government, no silver money could be produced. The whole event happened in 1873. Westerners from silver-mining states joined with debtors in demanding a return to the " Dollar of Our Daddies." This demand was essentially a call for inflation, which was solved by contraction(reduction of the greenbacks) and the Treasury's accumulation of gold. A compromise over the coinage of silver came with the Bland-Allison Act of 1878. The law instructed the Treasury to coin between 2 million and 4 million dollars in silver each month.

Front Porch Campaign

a low-key electoral campaign used in American politics in which the candidate remains close to or at home to make speeches to supporters who come to visit. The candidate largely does not travel around or otherwise actively campaign. The successful presidential campaigns of James A. Garfield in 1880, Benjamin Harrison in 1888 and William McKinley in 1896 are perhaps the best-known

Roscoe Conkling

a politician from New York who served both as a member of the United States House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. He was the leader of the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party.

Tom Watson

elected to the u.s congress, became known as a champion of georgia's farmers. he was a populist who supported interracial unity, but turned more radical.

Omaha Platform 1892

the 1892 platform of the Populist party repudiating laissez-faire and demanding economic and political reform (coins, railroads, income tax, election reform)